Targeted at potential investors, the new Primer™ for “Formosa Betrayed” plays heavily on the historic and political significance of the actual events.
LOS ANGELES, CA – With an unorganized pitch, the most exciting idea for a film can sound like one you’d sleep through. Which would be a crime for an idea like Will Tiao’s.
Aiming to unearth the politics of an entire nation, Tiao’s idea is inspired by the murders of Professor Chen Wen-Chen and journalist Henry Liu, as well as countless other Taiwanese democracy and independence activists and their struggles during the “White Terror “period.
Set in 1983, the story follows an FBI agent investigating the murder of a Taiwanese professor in the United States. As the agent investigates, he finds out that the professor was spied upon by students hired by the KMT Government in Taiwan. The agent goes to Taiwan to catch the assassin, only to realize that the murder is part of a larger political conspiracy that goes all the way to the top of the Chinese Nationalist regime, a conspiracy to quell the nascent Taiwanese Independence Movement.
What inspired Tiao to tell this story were the countless tales he’d heard from his parents, who fled to the United States after they were blacklisted by Chinese Nationalists. He’s also been inspired by his political endeavors, having lobbied for Taiwan’s entrance into the UN as part of the Formosa Association for Public Affairs, working on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, penning a provision that granted the U.S. permanent trade relations with China and a plethora of other experiences that opened his eyes and sent him around the world.
But before he could tell the story of Taiwan, Tiao needed the support of investors. And in order to get investors, he needed to create an organized pitch packet that outlined his vision.
The production and marketing of “A Starbucks Story” first brought Will Tiao and Dreamentia CCO Jim Olen together. The short garnered multiple awards across the festival circuit.
He also needed a company who could produce a proposal of this nature.
Tiao first met Dreamentia Creative Laboratories while collaborating on a short film called “A Starbucks Story.” The short garnered multiple awards across the festival circuit, winning the 2005 FAIF Los Angeles Film Festival audience awards for Best Short Film and Best Film of Festival, selling out three screenings at the world famous Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood. It has also been an official selection of the Queens International Film Festival, the Kansas City Jubilee Film Festival, the Austin Movie Show, and most recently, the Hollywood Shorts Film Festival. In fact, it was the success of “A Starbucks Story” that validated Tiao’s dream to leave his government position and pursue a career in entertainment and create a project to support Taiwan. Which he did in 2002.
It also prompted Tiao to put DCL CCO Jim Olen, whom he’d worked with on “A Starbucks Story,” in charge of creating the proposal, so that he might finally be able to tell the story that he’d always wanted to tell.
Dreamentia specializes in helping to bring ideas to life, and has for years been creating a proprietary product for just such projects, called a Primer™.
The production and marketing of “A Starbucks Story” first brought Will Tiao and Dreamentia CCO Jim Olen together. The short garnered multiple awards across the festival circuit.
“I grew to love Will and his ideas when we first worked with him on ‘A Starbucks Story.’ He had such passion in everything he was doing that it was incredibly infectious to all of us around him – and you couldn’t help but get swept up in his enthusiasm, looking for ways to get involved with whatever he was talking about.”
“So even though Will sat down with me and spent 3 hours walking me through every single step of his incredible idea for Formosa Betrayed, he had me at 你好.”
The Primer™ is not a business plan or a press kit. Nor is it a budget or a schedule with an attached storyline. Rather, it’s a creatively driven show-brochure that encapsulates the vision, right down to the key art and its logo. The concept is communicated dynamically, while at the same time revenue opportunities, market demand and growth potential are all clearly outlined to give concrete support as to the viability of the idea.
Dreamentia has created Primers™ for numerous clients, including The Firm, Robin Leach, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Sokolobl Films, for projects including feature films, television series, webisodes, and theatrical productions. “Formosa Betrayed” is it’s first Primer™ with an international flavor.